An embodiment of the invention generally relates to a power saving system and method for updating data in an application or widget running on a portable electronic device. Other embodiments are also described.
Portable electronic devices receive and display numerous pieces of information to users. The information may be received through the Internet or any type of data network. Conventionally, users have retrieved and viewed information from data networks through websites formatted for web browsers. However, websites are often difficult to view on smaller screens typically used on portable electronic devices. Accordingly, special purpose applications have been developed for portable electronic devices that properly format information typically viewed on a website for use on a portable electronic device's small screen. In some cases, these special purpose applications may fully encompass the viewing area of the screen such that a user can only view the contents of one active application. However, in other cases special purpose applications may be sized to encompass only a small area of a screen such that multiple applications may be viewed simultaneously. These smaller footprint applications are sometimes referred to as “widgets.”
Whether using a web-browser to view information or a special purpose application, these applications receive information through a network interface using either a push or pull protocol. For example, a portable electronic device with Internet connectivity may retrieve weather information for a user's hometown from a weather broadcast service, such as The Weather Channel (www.weather.com), The National Weather Service (www.weather.gov), AccuWeather (www.accuweather.com), or a similar service. Upon receipt, the information is shown to a user on a screen of the portable electronic device through a visible user interface provided by a weather application.
In many cases, the constant changing of information results in the need to periodically update the data that is shown by the application. For example, a weather application may be configured to automatically retrieve and update its displayed data every hour. These updates take place even while the screen of the portable electronic device is shut off such that the weather application is not viewable to a user. In some instances, data displayed in the application may be refreshed several times before the screen of the portable electronic device is turned on and viewed by a user. Each unviewed data update thus consumes battery power and network bandwidth, without providing a benefit to the user since the results were never viewed.